Our flight this morning boarded in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:45 a.m., our alarm went off at 3:45 as we had to catch a cab to the airport, check in,, and get through security. Our United 737 had just come from SFO as a "red eye" and was headed back there non-stop with us aboard.
On that transcontinental flight, I was the can't-stop-coughing guy nobody wanted to be within rows of. "Nobody" included me, I'd have gladly been far, far away.
We flew for nearly six hours and arrived at SFO at 9:30 a.m. local time. Getting luggage and a rental car took perhaps an hour and we were on the road north before noon. A quick lunch and meds stop in Davis and we got home about 3 p.m. We'll return the rental car tomorrow a.m. within the 24 hour time limit.
So now I've been awake for 15 hours after a very abbreviated night's sleep, it's only mid-afternoon, and I'm exhausted and sick. The cough, remnant of a cold, persists with disturbing vigor and tenacity. I need to be healthy enough to load an RV and do the Christmas-with-the-family thing on Saturday.
On a happier note, the Winter Solstice comes up in a couple of days, a holiday celebrated since truly ancient times, several thousand years ago. The annual event is echoed in various pre-Christian celestial observatories like Stonehenge and New Grange.
On Thursday we celebrate the 10th anniversary of COTTonLINE, with about seven thousand posts and over a quarter-million page views. Paraphrasing Rush Limbaugh, this blog has been more fun than anybody should be allowed to have.
